Remaking my TNT straight skirt pattern

Let's start with some pictures first ~

This outfit is a direct rip off of some Talbot pieces. I've owned the blue & navy large gingham print fabric since last year and the cardigan is a recent purchase.

Talbots skirt - $109

Cardigan from Jessica London 

 Fabric from Fabric Mart - no longer available

So let's talk about the changes I made to the pattern to make it work for me.

Pattern Alterations ~

• First I started with my TNT straight skirt pattern.
• I measured the pattern pieces at the hipline first to determine how many inches needed to be removed from the pattern piece.
• After measuring, I determined that I needed to remove 5/8" from the skirt's center back. 
• I removed 1/2" from the skirt's center front.
• Then I pegged the skirt's hem - starting just below the hip curve 1/4" to a full inch at the hemline on both the front and back skirt pieces.
• When making the new pattern pieces I made the hip curve softer rather than the angular one that is on my TNT piece.

Old TNT front skirt pattern piece vs. revised skirt pattern

New skirt pattern on top of the old pattern

Back pattern pieces - old vs. new

New back pattern piece on top of the old piece

Hopefully the photographs illustrate the changes I made to the pattern pieces. The new pieces are considerably smaller and are altered to give me a closer fit.

Construction ~
The plaid is the most important feature of this skirt and I wanted to make sure that my side seams all matched so I used a single layout to cut the fabric out. I cheated by laying the front piece on the fabric to make sure that the side back seams matched the front ones.

I opted to use a white invisible zipper for the skirt back only because I didn't have a navy one. I was really thrilled with the zipper insertion, as well as, the plaid match on the skirt back.

The skirt front has four darts - two one either side of the center front. I removed the darts closest to the side seams. This way I have some contour for the abdomen area but not too much. I left both sets of darts in the back pieces because I need the definition there.

The skirt is lined with an ivory bemberg rayon.

I couldn't decide whether to add a waistband or not. Finally went with a very thin waistband that is the measurement of the skirt's waist 42" long and 1.5" wide. This resulted in a 5/8" wide waistband.

A button/buttonhole closure on the waistband is my closure of choice. The best thing about my sewing machine is the variety of buttonhole choices available to me.  This time I went with a buttonhole that is rounded on both ends.

Conclusion ~
I like this new skirt and plan on making quite a few more. I'm also going to use these skirt pieces as the skirt for another version of my TNT dress pattern. So the pieces will need to be transferred to pattern paper for longevity.

A few more pictures of the skirt in action~

Outfit with my Keds - which I wear to walk to and from the bus

Next up on the cutting table is Vogue 9079 from some ponte prints.  I'm kinda excited about this dress because it's not my typical look!

Finally a parting shot ~
The white wedgies that I wore in these photos and the one of the gingham dress are about 10 years old and back in style.  So these are also back in rotation now too...

...as always more later!